The Laughter
The moment when Jean-Baptiste first hears laughter coming from the darkness of the water is big turning point. It’s what knocks him off the "bad faith wagon," so to speak. Of course, it’...
The van Eyck Painting
There really is such a painting as "The Just Judges." It’s a panel, part of a larger painting called "The Ghent Altarpiece" or "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb." The entire work is composed...
Heights, Depths, and Mexico City
You can read in "What’s Up With the Title?" about the various "falls" represented in the novel, and you can read a bit about Amsterdam’s sub-sea-level status in our discussion of the se...
The Passage of Narrative Time
You’ve probably noticed that time is different in The Fall. Jean-Baptiste tells you his life story, but he doesn’t do it chronologically. Either he’s like that guy who can’t...
The Doves
Jean-Baptiste mentions doves four times in the course of The Fall. Now, normally, talking about doves isn’t grounds for accusations of lunacy, but in this particular case, we have to doubt th...
Duplicity
Now and again, Jean-Baptiste speaks of "the fundamental duplicity of man." This is an interesting word, duplicity. (Remember that we’re dealing with a translation here, but both the O’B...
Water
Think about all the ways water factors into The Fall. The woman whom Jean-Baptiste fails to save dies by drowning. Jean-Baptiste has chosen to live in Amsterdam, a foggy city of canals, and a "sogg...